May 13, 2011

ADDED: I'm moving everything I wrote over on Althouse2 today. I'm setting the times to when they were originally posted there, so scroll down. Not all of the posts are about the blog problem. For example, there's one about parakeets.

I'm sure all the posts will be back tomorrow. Come on: In the ~4 years I've been reading this blog I can't remember an interruption, so it being down for a day is frustrating but not a scandal, and certainly not a conspiracy over misogyny!

The issue has been blown up bigger than Margaret Raymond's gigantic tits.

Old posts have been stored on another server. Instead of peeling back just the last two days of posts, Google fetched all of Ann's posts - as it did with a lot of other blogs... Restoring the system is a multi-stage process. First he UI function comes back online, then they'll layer the posts and comments back in... They are doing this in shifts so if the system crashes again, they'll know exactly where to fix it.

Once, when I was having several outages, someone recommended that I switch back to Blogspot, where I started. They cited your experience with Blogspot as evidence that it is a good service.

After today, I have given up on the idea of doing that. They mark your blog as spam and give you a haughty guy in the "support" thread who taunts you and talks about how you get one and only one appeal?

Scary. I imagine this happening to me, and think to myself: I can't give Google that kind of power over me.

It's ironic that this happens the same day they come out with the Chromebook, where you have to rely on the cloud for your data. And if the cloud goes down? And if they mark your data as spam and tell you tough luck, you get only one appeal and if you lose go to hell?

The archives are missing but when I searched Google for some posts that I remember and they still show in the search results (but go to a "no results" page). I can still see the cached version of the page.

Something is out there somewhere and I hope you get it all back. If you don't have them all backed up on your computer, you may want to search for some of your favorites and save the cached page as html.

"Patterico - do you ever take credit for inspiring a lot of bloggers with that blog you once had called what? I can't remember - it tracked all the media's leftist tilts?"

I'm sort of confused about what this question means: snark? Honest question? Something else? But I'll play along, guilelessly.

I still have my blog. Have since 2003. patterico.com. Not quite Ann's audience, but good enough for my purposes.

I don't take credit for much of anything. Too busy at work nowadays to *earn* much credit for anything that happens on the Internet.

Does that answer the question?

Now I see what nobodygivesacrap is. I once created an entire blog on blogspot called nobodygivesacrapandrewjlazarus.blogspot.com, to make the point to Andrew J. Lazarus that nobody gave a crap about what he was saying.

Immediate creation of a blog, at no cost, for amusement value: a Blogspot strength.

That whimsical and spontaneous creation somehow hanging around your neck forever whenever you want to comment: a Blogspot weakness!

"I have never been able to invest the time to figure out how to comment on these Blogspot sites and make it say it's me. Strike two."

I think you can simply type in a new name in your settings.

I did this when I switched from 1jpb to pbAndJ. Nothing else changes-- just a single entry (the name column) in some google/blogger database. All the rest of your info remains, at least it did for me, not that I have much info listed.

When you come out of the closet and admit your misogyny and homophobia, maybe at least you can begin to feel comfortable with who you really are. You know I was thinking about when leftism first came to national prominence and for me that was with Mario Savio (?sp) and the Free Speech something or other at Berkeley. Might be kind of fun to rewind the tape.

I really find it hard to believe something I have read here today: Google -- the second-wealthiest company in the world -- has convinced a bunch of schmucks to do its customer service for free. Really?

I think you ran into a problem with the way Google crowdsources their support. Note that "Nitecruzr" was a "top contributor" but Brett was a "google employee." I suspect Google runs blogger support like Wikipedia. Most of the work is done by volunteers who work for little or no traditional compensation, instead being rewarded with kudos and cheers from the "in-group" and higher "levels". Hopefully most are motivated by a genuine desire to help people, and most issues are simple and can be handled by such persons. By a few volunteers turn out to be pricks or martinets, driven by the amount of authority they can amass in the system, and they hate having to give up "their" support call to a higher authority.

On some private "top contributors only" forum somewhere, Nitecruzr is probably having a very bad evening.

"Now maybe that didn't include Blogger or blogger support as much as, oh, development, but I'm betting that the level of supervision was down just a tad."

I find this seriously hard to believe.

The administration of these sites shouldn't be down to the point where a very major blog can be called spam for a day. That got Google a lot of attention, and a very delayed resolution.

But you know, maybe you're right. And one way or the other, it's clear Google is not a reliable company for my data. If the reason they are reliable is because all the critical people go to parties sometimes, then that's a pretty good reason to use Bing and my conventional PC instead of Google and the chrome computer crap.

My guess is that this wasn't the problem. Google cheaps out on support, and let's idiots filter important service requests, even from major blogs in their blogger site. I can expect similar corner cutting all over the place.

What's really hilarious is that nitcruzer has some comments about how blogger justice is for the small blogger. He's a shill for a huge company, working for free, but in his head, he's actually a soldier of social justice (to be honest, this overstates things... he has expressed very little thought about anything interesting, including politics, though he did talk about justice being for the little guy).

It's telling that the lefties here (who I love dearly) didn't show up at Althouse2. This is because they didn't know about it, which is because they don't surf other blogs that righties surf, like Instapundit.

So the people at Google and/or Blogger -- paid or not -- who are in charge have never heard of Althouse. Let's say they get complaints about it, a claim about which I am skeptical. If they don't know it and understand it because they don't travel in the same orbit as the people who do know it, then it's easier for them to temporarily suspend it, especially in light of technical problems.

What interests me is the dichotomy -- diverichotomy? -- of Internet audiences. Cass Sunstein wrote a very audacious book about the issue years ago. He was prescient, even if his solutions amounted to elitist gatekeeper bullshit.

Sad to say that such is the reputation of Google for protecting free speech rights (particularly when it comes to political speech) that is is difficult to assume that the political bent of this blog did not have a significant part in causing the "accidental" outage.

Elitists want to be gatekeepers. It's part of elitism. It's at the core of the various conspiracy theories floating here (which may or may not have merit). It's definitely at the heart of the little fascist stunt that cunt Leiter pulled.

I do worry at times about the fracturing of society. But I guess I am more optimistic than Sunstein. And more of a believer in, you know, liberty and democracy. Things like that.

Went over and looked at Brian Leither's blog. If you're a legal academic and like the "inside baseball" of which Professor is moving from Law School "A" to Law School "C", I guess it's interesting. There are "trade rags" in every industry. For your average reader however, the subject matter wouldn't draw flies. His little fit--along with his sockpuppet anonymous poster is all just a bit twee.

Sorry to hear that you've been a victim of the Great Blogspot Fail Of 2011. My (rightly) obscure blog was untouched.

Perhaps try Googling to see if you can find free warez that can back up your entire blog for you. CAVEAT: read the fine print - I'm guessing some will copy everything, others will only copy posts but not comments. Remote storage or an external HD may be helpful too - I copy everything to a 500GB external drive.

Cesspool personnel firmly, fairly and consistently enforce the cesspool rules at all times. Cesspool personnel should memorize the cesspool rules and ensure that all staff and patrons comply with all of the rules. Cesspool personnel may be called upon to explain the reason for the rules to Brian Leiter. When Brian Leiter still has concerns about the rules, Brian Leiter can be referred to the self-appointed cesspool manager, nitecruzr.

1. All Brian Leiters entering the facility during Recreational/Lap Swim times are required to pay the facility admission fee unless seated in the special area designated for people who can't seem to mind their own business.

2. The rules and requests made by nitecruzr must always be followed.

3. Walk; don’t run in and around the cesspool facility whenever nitecruzr is on premises.

4. Patrons from Lawyers, Guns, and Money Daycare or less than four feet tall must be accompanied by a parent or responsible person, in a swim suit, at all times including in the cesspool, on the deck and in the restroom. While in the cesspool, the parent or responsible person must remain within arms reach of the patron from Lawyers, Guns, and Money Daycare.

5. Patrons from Lawyers, Guns, and Money Daycare who are not toilet-trained will be allowed in the cesspool only if they wear a swimsuit diaper or plastic pants and a swim suit. Cloth or disposable diapers are not accepted.

6. Patrons must NOT shower with soap before entering the pool. Persons with open cuts, sores, bandages, colds, coughs or infected eyes are especially welcome in the pool.

7. Spitting, spouting or nose-blowing in the pool is highly encouraged.

8. Foul and abusive language will be highly rewarded.

9. A patron will be verbally warned for the first offense; the patron will be asked to leave the cesspool facility if a second offense occurs. And if a third offense occurs, the cesspool will be closed until nitecruzr feels all patrons have learned their lessons and this time he really means it.

Society is already fractured- it has been for years. People like Sunsteing & Leiter would abhor socializing with me and I would abhor it even more than them.

They are little librul pussies who have spent most of their lives in a bubble and they know very little about the real world. They are know nothings like George Costanza except they have credentials. Take a ride on a subway with one of them- they will not notice or see a thing because they are too self-absorbed in their own little bubble.

chickelit asked me on Althouse2: "Do you happen to know what happened to backtype.com? They no longer seem to host back comments from Althouse."

Sadly backtype was only free for a limited time, basically until they worked out the kinks and got some exposure. They've now changed it to a subscription service for corporate clients, which is what I believe it was designed to be.

Thank you, Shiloh! It feels like the last scene in Caddyschack right now, where we put aside our petty differences among us and realize that fascist pricks of any stripe who would take away our precious liberties are the real enemy.

From what I can see, nitecruzr has dug in his heels. I am sorry to see that - and just posted this on his blog thread:

Seriously - I have seen your helpful comments in the past, and they are nothing like the tone you are taking with Ann Althouse.

It is clear that there is some kind of lingering glitch affecting her LARGE blog in the aftermath of Blogger being down for a day and a half.

You should be taking the tach of "What can we do to solve this," figure out what has triggered the complete disappearance of all of her posts and comments, the entire blog - NOT be accusing her of spam or playing this card, the justice is for the poor and weak card.

Just say, "OMG, let's fix this."

Instead you are scaring other bloggers, feeding conspiracy "shut down for political reasons" and generally creating bad pr, without meaning to.

Please - we like you. We like Blogger. It is virtually impossible to find help links when you need them, and she, like the rest of us was unable to access her Dashboard because of your shutdown - for God's sake I hope you apologize and fix the problem - and improve the methods for contacting Blogger when we all need help.

I'd also add, whoever has your back on facebook is doing a good job. That's how I learned there was a problem over here (since, ironically, I spend so much time on facebook anymore that I've really fallen off on my blogging.)

"Seriously - I have seen your helpful comments in the past, and they are nothing like the tone you are taking with Ann Althouse."

I binged his handle, and it's pretty clear nightcruiser has been a dickhead to a lot of people, actually. Google has had plenty of time to know what it means to keep this guy as a moderator and their customer service 'help'.

And I have yet to see a thread with that clown that doesn't come with tons of links to his blog, even when completely unrelated to the topic. I'm sure it's out there, but I gave up looking. He's a spammer with a projection problem.

Nite Cruizer, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a blog that does not exist. Chuck Nite, an old loser on a crusade to champion the cause of the small blogger, the helpless victim of ... big bloggers in a world of misogynist cesspools who operate above the law... school rankings of Brian Leiter.

Time to dump Google and move on to a a platform with some "stability". Google is just too big, too powerful. There are other good options that won't screw you over. Trust me, this won't be the last time this happens to you.

Good morning to the far North. We just arrived in Florida, and it is as cool as what we expect temps to be in the mountains. Has Wisconsin even broken 68 yet? This week at Amelia Island includes grandfather duties. The cool weather is perfect for golf. Amelia Island is 30 miles north of the Sawgrass TPC at Ponte Vedra, but we plan to play in our own tournament.

The more I think about this the more skeptical I become. What the hell is a spam blog anyway? Is it a blog where the owner goes around posting links to themselves at popular blogs?

And whatever it is, isn't it obvious to the casual observer that Althouse is not a spam blog? This blog has years and years of posts and a record of being a very popular blog. Are we supposed to credit the idea that while this seems obvious to us the geniuses at Google couldn't tell?

Crap. I missed all of the fun. I spent some time at Chip Ahoy's blog while Althouse was down, but was off-line for Leiter laughfest yesterday. I was really pissed, because I couldn't show of my new avatar here.

Anyway, welcome back, Althouse! Welcome back, Althouse commenters! I promise to never be off-line for more than 10 hours again.

BTW. Althouse, your last proposed cross-country meetup was put off by certain adventures with Meade. Any chance of one in the near future?

Over the past three days Google has screwed up a maintenance run, botched the back-out, and is laboring to recreate Blogger piece by piece. This is exactly how not to run a cloud computing environment. Extremely unprofessional. Why would anyone ever want to buy a cloudy chrome netbook after this fiasco?

I have a feeling Ann is right now looking for a new hosting platform for her blog.

By the way, it's hard to predict what will happen in these matters. On my blog (with Blogspot) I had switched to the Haloscan commenting service because it was more attractive and free than the one built into Blogger. But then, several years later, Haloscan was sold to Echo and they used an extortion scheme, it seems to me, to pay for their initial investment. Suddenly you had pay a monthly fee or lose all of your old comments. And they made it very difficult to export your old comments. I refused to pay those bastards and lost FIVE YEARS of comments.

(Thanks, Jason the commenter)Posted follow up on nitcruzr's blog: (It's in moderation)

The whole thing is ludicrous. If Ann's blog is SPAM then every blog you have on your entire system is SPAM. How on earth does this absolutely surreal notion get more than 5 seconds of traction with any of you at Blogger?

You features Blogs of Note all the time - here you are dealing with one of your biggest success stories, and except for Brett, none of you seem to realize the significance of what you are doing.

Her Blog has not been RESTORED. The portal is open and she has access to her Dashboard and can post, but her entire blog is MISSING.

This is a blog that has dealt with political issues, features personal photos, has a huge following, and has in recents months been doing the job real reporters are supposed to do and don't.

Something happened in your recovery process - that is the problem, and that is what you need to focus on. NOT a SPAM review.

PERHAPS those who disagree with Ann's coverage of the recent events in Wisconsin instituted a flag as objectionable attack that normally would not cause any disruption, but in the course of your recovering from your glitch something in those flags triggered this event - that is the benign possibility - the other is that this is a deliberate act by Google to punish someone with the 'wrong' political view.

If the latter is the case - and I don't think it is - you will lose business in numbers we can't even begin to imagine.

Please change the tone of your responses.

If you cannot see - upon your IMMEDIATE first glance - that this is not a SPAM problem, something is SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY WRONG.

I asked if he deleted his comments on the help forum on purpose. If he meant to post incendiary things, get a response, and then delete his comments. That way, if his work were reviewed, it would look like he was dealing with a crazy person.

And you'll note that many (but not all) of the comments he himself posted and then removed have been restored.

Thanks, Jason, I am following it - it's clear that they have a massive problem, they're just looking at it wrong...

My next comment is also in moderation - and I REALLY HOPE BLOGGER IS PAYING ATTENTION!

We agree that all blog owners are entitled to equal respect.

The problem here is that her blog is classified as spam in the first place.

What criteria could you possibly be using that makes this even possible - and since it clearly must be something else, what is it? and why are you digging in your heels insisting that it IS spam?

That's what we're asking... and we're not just asking you... we're talking to each other, we're evaluating our own positions as many of us also have blogs... we're asking where else we can move to, and whether we should in light of this insanity.

We're not asking this, nor were we upset by a legitimate outage. Blogger has made VAST improvements over the years, and for that we are very grateful.

We recognize the incredible job you do, we marvel at the platform you provide to us for free. We enjoy all the new features - and we also constantly defend you when others tell us to leave Blogger and go to Wordpress.

That is why we are mystified at the vociferous tone of the response to Ann's simple request to restore her blog.

For crying out loud - something went wrong in the restore process. Fix that - THEN go back to evaluating blogs that are allegedly SPAM - you don't do that in the middle of glitch like this - you're then "fixing" the wrong thing.